Standard Dad

I am visiting Dad at his home in Sedona this week. We’ve been doing chores and eating well and de-stressing. I am also trying to write a paper but having a great deal of difficulty creating something coherent. Part of this is because I am not sure that writing an article with my own opinions about education isn’t self-aggrandizing. At the same time I am reading a trio of books about women educators, singly and groups of them, from the early 20th century who have made it their life’s work to better education of the masses. It is amazing that I have never heard much about these women and their accomplishments. I knew the name of the most famous of the bunch, Margaret Haley, but really did not know how significant a role she played in making teaching into the profession it is today. None of the women of whom I am reading was perfect, especially Haley. But each of them dedicated their lives to public education and truly believed that an educated population could make better decisions for a democratic nation. I can learn much from them. Most importantly, reading about these lives reaffirms me in the knowledge that I do have to work towards helping our schools teach our students to be engaged citizens. At the moment, I can’t think of anything more important. And back to our “standard Dad”, he helped us to have the skills to be exactly that, engaged citizens. Imagine that…..